Phantom of the Forest
by Tom the Mighty
Summary: Book/Manga Continuity Two weeks after defeating Rezo/Shabranigdo, Lina and Gourry are still on their way to Atlas City and in need of cash, they take a job that might or not. probably not be the end of them both.


Slayers: The Phantom of the Forest

Chapter One: Restaurants and Lumberjacks.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, not gonna sell it, just for fun and writing skills improvermentation.

Note: This story has nothing to do with my Knightfall Series.

It was a typically warm late summer's evening. The setting sun painted the sky in hues of red and purple, and the clouds seemed lined with gold. It was windless, and the birds had nothing better to do than to sing their chirpy songs, competing with the squirrel's equally noisy chattering.

The scents of harvested grain and freshly crushed wine grapes were strong in the air, almost as intoxicating as their final products. Children played in the streets, men returned from the fields, and smithies and women exited the shops, completing a picturesque day.

Too bad there were at least two people too hungry to appreciate it all.

"I can't believe you got me to order sheep stomach," groaned Gourry Gabriev, as he skeptically poked with his fork at a food thing stuffed with coarsely ground organ meat.

"I can't believe that you, who chop up people for a living, are so squeamish about eating ethnic food," replied an annoyed Lina Inverse. (Not that being annoyed was anything new for her.)

After several weary, muddy days of walking, having traveled to the outskirts of Zephillia, passing up from Seyruun and soon to be cutting into Ralteeg, the unlikely pair had stopped at the small border town of Trier for a bed and a meal or three.

Gourry, while tall, blonde, and handsome with sun-bronzed skin, was a little lacking in the thinking department. Still, he was probably the greatest swordsman of his and several previous generations.

Lina, on the other hand, was short, redheaded, not ugly but not gorgeous by anyone's standards either. But she was extremely intelligent and easily the greatest sorceress of her time. She was possibly second only to the legendary Ray Magnus, a sorcerer who lived a thousand years ago, and who was also carried a shard of Shabranigdo in his blood.

"It's not like I eat them," retorted the blond swordsman.

"Why not? Wasting food is a sin, as my late Gramps used to say!" kidded Lina. But the humor was apparently lost on Gourry, who looked as if he were on the verge of vomiting.

"That was a joke, nimrod!" Why did some people take her so seriously? Granted, she and Gourry had only been traveling together for about a month or so, but you'd think he'd pick up on some things, you know? Like Lina's somewhat twisted sense of humor.

"Sometimes, I wonder," Gourry said, still eyeing the diminutive sorceress with a hint of suspicion. He had never met anyone quite like Lina before. Well, maybe someone, but she wasn't nearly as crude.

"Oh, whatever," sighed Lina, wondering again why she allowed Gourry to follow her around everywhere. Her gaze fell upon the sword leaning against his chair.

_Oh yeah,_ thought Lina. _That's why._

The Sword of Light: A most powerful weapon of unknown origins that had somehow ended up in the Gabriev family for generations. At a glance, the sword simply looked like an oddly crafted blade, almost like an ocean creature made of metal, until the swordsman removed the steel blade and called upon his will to ignite the weapon's true power: a blade of light that could rend even a demon.

One day, one way or another, that sword would be hers. It was just too bad the "owner" liked to tie the blade to a string around his neck at night, preventing any preliminary research Lina might have done with it.

. . . But it was fun strangling the blond a little during her many attempts at swiping it.

"Whatever, " Lina forlornly repeated as she dug into her meal. Nothing could be easy, could it?

"You upset?" Gourry asked, gazing ambiguously at a forkful of haggis.

"Just a little!" Lina slammed a fist down on the table, inadvertently sending a fork flying and implanting itself in the posterior of an unsuspecting waitress.

"Eeeek!"

"Sorry!" Lina halfheartedly apologized and then locked eyes with Gourry. "I'm upset because while we've been on the road for a month now, we still haven't reached Atlas City! This is a journey that should've taken ten days at most!" Granted, they'd gotten sidetracked with the whole Philosopher's Stone/Rezo ordeal, but that was no excuse, in Lina's mind.

"Going to where now?"

"AT-LAS CI-TY!" Lina enunciated slowly so that the mush known as Gourry's brain might have the time necessary to reconstruct her vocal vibrations into sounds that had more than abstract meaning, thus communicating an idea. "I agreed to let you accompany me there, for reasons now lost to me, when we first met. Now we are out of money and have been doing odd jobs trying to earn the funds to continue!"

"Yeah, but wasn't it you that decided spending the week at the most expensive inn you could find was a good idea?"

"Oh, now this is all my fault?" Lina shrieked.

"Surely, for some reason, you meant to imply that it was all mine?" Gourry deadpanned.

"I just defeated Ruby Eye! Besides: You're a guy! You're supposed to take the brunt of a young woman's frustrations!"

"Whether they are well founded or not?"

"Exactly! Now you're getting it! Maybe this partnership will amount to something other than headaches after all!"

"You sure do yell a lot, you know?" Gourry muttered, not quite under his breath.

"What was that?" Lina snapped, hazardously brandishing her steak knife.

"Er, excuse me?" Somebody tried to interrupt, but Lina was far from being finished.

"LOUD, AM I?" Lina stood up, knocking over her chair, which wound up tripping the very same waitress whose bottom had been perforated. The sound of shattering dishes and a shrieking barmaid did little to drown out the irate Inverse.

"LISTEN, YOU!"

"Please, excuse me?"

"You don't need to cause a scene," Gourry scolded.

"A scene? A SCENE? I defeated RUBY EYE! I think that I DESERVE to cause a little scene every once in a while!"

"EXCUSE ME!"

"WHAT!?" Gourry and Lina shouted in unison at the source of their mutual disturbance, which happened to be a young woman, perhaps a year or so Lina's senior. She had dark brown, almost black, hair and vivid, but frightened-looking green eyes.

"Eep!" The girl squeaked and slid to the floor, then scrambled to the relative safety that lay underneath the table directly behind her.

The swordsman and sorceress stared at each other quizzically for a second, and then switched their gaze to the floor. And then back to each other for another half moment. Then it was back to their meal, as both by then had completely forgotten whatever it was they were arguing about to begin with, and their food was getting cold.

"I wonder what Zel is up to?" Lina asked after a moment of masticating sheep's stomach.

"Zel?"

"Zelgadis? Yay tall? Made of stone? Helped us defeat the root of all evil?"

"Nope, doesn't ring a bell," Gourry resolutely went back to gathering enough courage to take at least one bite of the decidedly _foreign_ food.

Lina blew out a sigh, "You'd think some people would remember something that important." Lina was worried for the guy; Zel had refused to come with them to Atlas City, stating that his appearance in such a large city would cause an uproar. But then again, Zel did seem like the loner type, so maybe he would be fine after all?

"E-excuse me?"

Lina yelped at the owner of the unexpected voice and managed to knock her knees from under the table.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?"

"EEEEK!" The young woman once again screamed like a ninny. Then she ran directly into the same poor waitress, who had just finished cleaning up the mess of dishes Lina caused a few minutes before.

_Well, _Gourry thought, _At least this place isn't crowded like every other time Lina decides to cause a ruckus. _

"Oh, that's IT!" seethed the waitress, who seemed to be gushing a black, dangerous aura. "You three! Out! Get out and never come back!"

Gourry and Lina, stunned into submission, could only stutter apologies. Only from a demon had they ever felt such a venomous miasma. Gourry fumbled in his pockets and turned out a coin in payment for their meal. But the coin somehow wound up in the air, and, defying all probability, went down the ill-fated waitress's windpipe.

"G-gagh!" the poor girl doubled over, her face turning an abnormal color.

Not wanting the situation to become even more complicated, Lina did the only thing she could think of. She yelled, "Run!" and run the pair did.

"We're not dine and dashers! Check your unconscious waitress for payment!" Gourry yelled as they blew past the owner of the establishment and out the door into the tidy cobblestone streets.

"Assuming she hasn't died by now!" added Lina

Once far enough away, heading toward the still semi-crowded town square, the trio (the interrupting girl had caught up with them not long after they stopped) leaned against the square's central statue, trying to catch their breath.

"Do you realize how many restaurants I've been kicked out of since I joined up with you?" Gourry asked, just a tad annoyed.

"I'm sorry you aren't used to it by now," sniped Lina.

"Er . . . "

"Oh, you," Lina said, finally acknowledging the harried looking girl. "What do you want? And don't think you can get out of being responsible for getting us kicked out of that restaurant."

"That's a little harsh," remarked Gourry.

"It's true, though!" Gourry just grimaced, knowing by then that it was useless trying to argue with her.

"Um, excuse me, but might you two be mercenaries?"

"Might be that we are," Lina confirmed, now all business. "Need somebody bumped off?"

"No! No. Nothing as nasty as that." The girl looked horrified for a second, but quickly composed herself. As Lina and Gourry took a closer look at her, they could tell she was a priestess or acolyte of some religious sect. Her white robes, trimmed with green and with gold runes, did a pretty good job at obscuring her womanly physique.

"Well then, what is it then? I don't have all night. I've got to find another place to eat before I get any crankier."

"Seems about normal for you to me-OW!" Lina had cut off her blond companion with a well-placed stomp to the toes.

"You little-!"

"Not now. Money-making-mode," Lina said, and then turned to the girl. "Please continue."

"Right, well, where to begin? About a week ago, some of this village's loggers went missing. That is to say, they haven't come back home yet."

"Has anyone gone to go look for them?" asked Gourry.

"No, by order of the High Priest," the girl explained. "He says something unholy is at work, and he will not allow anyone to enter the woods."

"Hmph," Lina grumbled. "Sounds like typical somebody-has-something-to-hide bullshit to me. And those kinds of jobs never end up well for me."

"Please! All I am asking you to do is search the logging camp! Just to make sure that nothing terrible has happened!"

"How much?"

"A fee? Of course, um, how about ten gold--"

"Come on Gourry, we're out of here."

"Fifty! Fifty gold pieces!"

"Just call me Lina 'Ms. Rescue' Inverse."

"'Ms. Rescue?'" Gourry scoffed. "Last time I checked, you had to be rescued by the guy you captured not too long ago, Little Miss."

That was true, Zelgadis, who'd caught and defeated Lina, did release her, but only because he needed her help to get the Philosopher's Stone in order to defeat Rezo. She'd regretted telling Gourry that little story the moment it left her mouth.

"Oh, like you have any better plans for getting us this kind of fast cash?" Lina turned to the girl. "Now that I mention it, we haven't been properly introduced yet, have we? I'm Lina Inverse, and the tall thing over there is Gourry."

"'Tall thing'?"

"I am Layra." The girl took Lina's hand and then Gourry's. "Layra Ecksbold, the daughter of the High Priest of the Church of Sylpheed in this village."

"Pleased to meet you Layra," Lina took the girls hand, which she discovered was shaking, even under her firm grasp. "Let's see if we can't go find us some lumberjacks!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Gourry grumbled.

Tom the Mighty's Mighty Notes

How's that for a beginning?

Slayers Knightfall is currently on hold until I'm sure the finale will be as kick-ass as I hope it will be.

This tale here won't be more than ten chapters long, maybe less, we'll see.


End file.
